Winston Churchill quotes

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

History is written by the victors.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Never give in - never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Never give in - never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Never, never, never give up.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.